We recently saw an untethered iOS 5.1.1 jailbreak released for our much loved Apple products, the main person involved in that jailbreak process, @pod2g has now released his work to other prolific jailbreak developers so that they can update their published tools – one such product is Seas0nPass. Seas0nPass is used to create custom jailbroken firmware for the AppleTV 2nd Generation. It’s a very simple tool and unlocks the potential of your AppleTV very quickly. The Seas0nPass application can be run on either a Mac of Â a PC and is completely free of charge. Here’s how to use it:

Download and open the latest version of Seas0nPass (links below)

ClickÂ Create IPSW

Follow the on-screen instructions, which in essence are:

Disconnect your AppleTV from the mains

Disconnect your AppleTV’s HDMI lead

Hook up your AppleTV to your Mac / PC (only once the IPSW has been created and you’ve been asked to do so)

AppleTV will now be in DFU mode, Seas0nPass will take over opening iTunes and automatically restoring the AppleTV using the custom IPSW it just created

Seas0nPass will confirm once it’s completed. At this point you can hook up your AppleTV to the mains and reconnect your HDMI lead.

Now you’ve jailbroken your AppleTV, many sites will now encourage the installation of something calledÂ aTV Flash Black by FireCore, this is not free software and whilst the feature list does look appealing, the best alternative XBMC (XBox Media Centre) is, in my opinion, more than capable and has the added bonus of being free.Â XBMC turns the AppleTV into a fully featured customisable / skinnable media centre that plays any type of media file you wish to open rather than just the Apple native file formats. It’s packed with fantastic decoding and streaming capabilities and has a host of plugins available too. Your default AppleTV setup isn’t impacted by it – you execute XBMC from a shortcut on the AppleTV menu. If this peaks your interest then you’ll be glad to know we’ve a guide forÂ how to set up XBMC on AppleTVÂ too!

To stop your AppleTV from updating itself automatically (or by accident) and stripping off your much loved jailbroken and customised set-up you’re also going to want to turn off automatic checking of firmware updates. You’ve guessed it,Â we’ve a guide for that too!